Month: February 2017

I came across this quote by Kristina Carrillo-Bucaram and it resonated so deep within me, that I felt the need to share it with you all. It states:

“My only focus each day is to be myself, live my true passions, inspire greater health and wear my soul shamelessly, with strength and grace.” – Kistina Carrillo-Bucaram (@fullyrawkristina)

…How incredibly beautiful is that?

For those of you who know me, you know that I am incredibly in tune with my spirituality and energies are important to me. I trust the vibrations I receive and always strive for harmony.

There is a beautiful piece of writing by an unknown author, which basically tells you to listen to your emotions. I am going to share this with you, because if you are like me, then you will appreciate the beauty of this piece. I found this on a facebook page titled: Berlin Artparasites.

Hey you, listen to your emotions…

Bitterness shows you where you need to heal, where you’re still holding judgements on others and yourself.

Resentment shows you where you’re living in the past and not allowing the present to be as it is.

Discomfort shows you that you need to pay attention right now to what is happening, because you’re being given the opportunity to change, to do something different than what you typically do.

Anger shows you what you’re passionate about, where your boundaries are, and what you believe needs to change about the world.

Disappointment shows that you tried for something, that you did not give into apathy, that you still care.

Guilt shows you that you’re still living a life in other people’s expectations of what you should do.

Shame shows you that you’re internalizing other people’s beliefs about who you should be and that you need to reconnect with yourself.

Anxiety shows you that you need to wake up, right now, and be present, that you’re still stuck in the past and living in fear of the future.

Sadness shows you the depth of your feelings, the depth of your care for others and this world. – Unknown

As a person who suffers from anxiety, I think it really is important to be in touch with your emotions and feelings. Listen to your emotions and always be authentic. Be unapologetic in your evolution. In order to grow and develop, we need to trust ourselves and acknowledge all feelings. We need to appreciate the remarkable feelings but also listen to the deeper meaning behind the not-so-great feelings. Take a second to reflect on your feelings. Hindsight is the best foresight. Respect yourself. Respect the process. Respect the feelings and emotions. Do not be ashamed for feeling a certain way.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is, listen to your emotions, they tell you things about yourself and respect that process in order to grow to your higher potential.

To conclude, I’d like to end by a quote shared with me by my friend Anke. It’s a little quote that fits well with the emotions whilst traveling.

“Traveling is brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends.

You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it”

I wish you peace, light, and love. Thank you for reading and for the support! Bloom and Blossom in all your glory my friends.

Okay, so I have to start with an apology. I’m sorry that I did not keep my word and post on Sunday. I am sure you were all eagerly awaiting my post LOL.

Basically, the structure of this post follows the same type of format as my last one. I will give you a recollection of the past 10 days.

Let’s get right to it then!

Monday (06/02)

This week started with a bang. We were given pictures and told to make a drama performance using the picture as inspiration. Our target audience would be children aged 1-6. Our group chose Vincent Van Gogh’s piece called “Bedroom in Arles”. Our vision was to have someone play a little boy in the room, about to go to bed and falls asleep to his mom reading him a story. The “dream” or story we chose was a popular Norwegian fairytale. We chose “The three billy goats gruff”. Guess who had the role of being the big, bad, ugly troll? Me! Hehe. I love it! (Pictures to follow)

Tuesday (07/02)

This was an Arts & Crafts day. The skills we were to learn here had to aid us in making our set props for the drama performance. The theme was “Eco-Art”. As I may have mentioned before, Norwegian people are extremely fond of Nature and try to incorporate this into their daily lives. That’s great and I love it because I am also a nature lover….But… it was -8 degrees and we had to build props outside using bamboos and elastic bands. Yeah, you stopped reading at -8 degrees right? My brain stopped functioning properly at -8 degrees! Hahaha. Guys, the weather is savage here. My fingers were freezing numb trying to fasten the rubber bands and bamboo together. Overall, the International class of 2017, managed to make a tall structure out of smaller built tetrahedrons.

Snuck in a sneaky selfie there. Hehe.

Wednesday (08/02)

Music Day! We got to learn a bit on how to integrate music into the children’s lives at kindergarten level. We sang, we used instruments and we also had a chance to create musical pieces whilst using a scarf as a prop. We needed to use the scarf as anything we imagined it to be. I really would have loved to upload the videos of us making music, however, I’m having some trouble doing that here.

The college has fully functional recording studios as well as instruments of all types and sizes.

OH! Also, I did some cleaning on Wednesday. Yay Mom & Dad, now I can clean a bathroom & toilet! Aren’t you proud? hahaha. I still look like a queen though!

Thursday (09/02)

Okay, so we had our story, we learnt how to build props using nature and we learnt some music to add flare to the performance. All that was left to do was to rehearse. We worked on our costumes and set outdoors to do run-throughs of the play before our actual presentation on Friday. Also, on Thursday, I went to IKEA. South Africa, why you no have IKEA??? Lol. Somebody needs to bring an IKEA to South Africa like ASAP. Ergh, we need it!

Friday (10/02)

More like FriYAY! Performance day. Woohoo. As an ex-drama student in High school and University, I love getting the chance to perform again. Although life is my stage and I’m the protagonist of my life’s play, I still enjoy getting into character and just performing. You know? First look at pics of my cute beanie! Then the transformation into my Troll character, the music players, the troll with the 3 billy goats and the whole class at the end of our performance.

Saturday (11/02)

This was my day to relax and unwind from the week that passed. I had been outside mostly all week and it was COLD. So, I slept in and later in the day I went into town with my roommate and her friend. We did a little shopping then came home and made tortilla wraps for dinner.

Sunday (12/02)

Sunday is laundry day. So that’s what I did. I did my laundry. And in the evening I hosted a dinner party. I invited my two Norwegian friends: Ingrid and Isabel, and Melody joined us too. And my roommates Julia & Debora were present as well. Even Debora’s mom was there, all the way from Italy. I wanted them all to try my newly acquired cooking skills and taste some South African curry. I made chicken curry, Julia and Debora’s mom helped me too. Then I set the table and waited for my guests to arrive. I bought candles as a center piece for the table, just to add a nice touch. OH-MY-WORD! My guests waited til all the way after dinner to tell me that the candles I purchased (The main centre of attraction on the table) were candles for a graveyard!!! Apparently, the candles are specific ones that people bought and placed at graveyards to pay their respects to lost loved ones. I completely missed that memo. I’ve actually never been to a grave-yard to be honest. As a practicing Hindu, we believe in cremating the body of the deceased. So it really wasn’t my fault that the ambiance I created for the dinner party was a morbid one.

You will see pics of my bathroom and just know that all the roommates decided to do their laundry on the same day. All our clothes were hanging on rails in the bathroom, it was actually quite hilarious at the time.

The grave-yard candle center piece debacle will haunt me forever!

Monday (13/02)

We made ice cream out of yogurt in class! So cool! I also found friends who love Harry Potter equally as much as I do (Alana & Tessa, I’m talking about you!). Melody and Anke, we heard you talking smack about Harry Potter, not cool guys, not cool. Hahahahaha. Connecting with people, finding common interests or just communicating with people from all over the world who share the same passion for education and teaching is really an amazing feeling.

Tuesday (14/02)

Basically..I spent all of Tuesday drinking tea in lectures and waiting to go home because I was tired. But I still looked cute though. See!

I’m really digging the pink flower orb vibe, can you tell?

Wednesday (15/02)

Today I went to my Barnehage (kindergarten) to do practical training. I love being there. My mentor is such a good leader and role model. The more time I spend here, the less I want to go home (Back to S.A). This place is amazing. Here are some pictures of the outdoor and indoor areas at my school. The dressing room is where the children put on their outdoor clothes, this usually means woolen tights and tops and thick padded onesies, cute little beanies and cute boots. They are so independent and do their dressing up and down themselves. They lay the table for their lunch time and use glass crockery and real knives. They all know how to share, they all have manners and they all are treated with equal respect. The rights of the child are very important in the Framework plan (the educational system kindergartens adhere to in Norway). Children are taught using these 7 learning areas:

Art, Culture & Creativity

Communication, Language & Text

Body, Movement & Health

Nature, Environment & Technology

Ethics, Religion & Philosophy

Local Community & Society

Number, Space & Shape

The kindergarten works in close collaboration and understanding with the home and safeguards the childrens need for care and play. It promotes learning and formation as a basis for an all-round development. The kindergartens are based on fundamental values in the humanist heritage and tradition. Values such as respect for human dignity and nature, intellectual freedom, charity and forgiveness, equality and solidarity are taught. There are wide open spaces for the children to explore and build their motor skills as well as places to go to peak their curiosity. The atmosphere and environment revolving around this setting is truly magnificent.

My mentor is male. He bakes bread. He does toilet routines. He tends to children who are sick or have gotten hurt. There is equality in the workplace and the children have good role models from both genders. Both male and female are shown as a nurturing and caregiving role model. This is so refreshing to see and the children really thrive on this.

The biggest thing I’ve learnt so far is the equality and solidarity amongst the Norwegian people and it’s such a wonderful thing to witness. It really is.

Believe it or not, I actually felt quite warm in today’s weather. I’m starting to become more Norwegian as the days go by and I’m loving it.
As always, thank you for reading. Thank you for your support and well wishes. Thank you. ❤️

Norwegian Adventures

I know in my previous blog post I mentioned that the next post (which is this one) was going to focus on the Norwegian Education System, however, I feel that I should rather keep you up to speed with the happenings of this past week and focus on the Education System in a future post. The reason for this is because there’s just so much I want to say about the Education and I need to do more observation and research before presenting the information to you.

Let’s go through my week now, shall we?

On Monday and Tuesday, I attended lectures and these are part of the course I’m doing. My subjects include:

Social Science (A short overview of the welfare state and early childhood development)

These subjects are highly interactive as we are always doing comparisons to our own country and giving feedback (which is awesome!). We get to learn about the Norwegian systems and way of life, but also insight into other countries systems through the various students in our international class.

On Wednesday, I got to finally go to the school (Kindergarten translates to Barnehage in Norwegian) in which I will be doing my 35 days of teaching practice. I have to take 2 buses (15 minutes each) and walk for 15 minutes before I get to my school. I have a male mentor teacher and the age group I am working with is 3-4-year-olds. I have 9 children in my class. I promise to tell you more when I’m giving you my thoughts and findings on the Education system! Promise. You don’t want to miss that post.

On Friday after school, I came home to a beautiful view and I decided to attempt to make chicken curry.

The curry turned out pretty good for a first attempt, however, it was a bit spicy. I had a heavy hand when adding the masala (spices).

Saturday

On Saturday, The international class (25 students from various countries doing the same course as me) went to an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet! It was at the Egon Tårnet revolving restaurant. It gave us a view of the whole city of Trondheim. It was 110 krone and unlimited pizza. So delicious. I’ll add pictures below.

After filling our bellies and getting the best of the sunset, we decided to take a chance and chase the Northern Lights. We went home, put on all our warm gear, bought some beer and set off to Kristiansten Fortress. We were told that this viewpoint was great for looking at the Northern Lights as well as seeing the city of Trondheim at night. The girls and I took two buses and did a 20-minute hike/walk up the hill to the fortress and WOW! The place was beautiful. We sat on a hill, cracked open a beer and just watched the little sliver of green in the sky. The Northern Lights were not as bright, but you could definitely see it, however, I could not capture it with my camera. A friend from my class caught a few great images and she will email them to me soon, then I’ll put it up for you to see! Pure magic. Absolutely beautiful.

On our way back home, at around 10:30 pm, we stumbled across a frozen lake. The girls had a ball skating on it. Of course, we did not have ice skates with us, but we were slipping and sliding with our normal shoes. Making snow angels and just having a great time. I am from sunny South Africa and walking on the ice has been challenging for me here in Norway. I keep slipping and feel like I am going to fall because everything is glazed with ice and I feel I have no balance. So I stood at the edge on the snow, whilst everyone else played on the ice.

My friends were not having it. They held my arms and supported me and took me out onto the ice so that I could also experience it. I really am glad they did so. I got comfortable with being on the ice, and soon after, I too was gliding on the ice and doing little tricks. It’s so good to be surrounded by people who include you in everything and want you to step out of your comfort zone to experience something new and exciting. I’m grateful for the new friends I made because, without them, I would have never had the confidence to try something new and conquer my fear of the ice. My first time on ice and it was fantastic! Here are also some pictures from the top of the fortress overlooking the city and more of us on the ice.

Shew! What a day. I was beat. But I must say that I had the most awesome time trying out new things and connecting with my classmates in a setting other than our classroom. Friendships were formed and it was a great opportunity to step out of my little comfort bubble and get going with this Norwegian lifestyle.

Sunday

On Sunday, I had a relaxing day in. I slept til late and woke up and did some cleaning. A few of my new friends invited me out to the movies with them. Alana and Emily from Ireland and Anke from Belgium wanted to go to the cinema and watch “Split” (Go watch this movie!!!). This is a movie about a man with Disassociative Identity Disorder (DID). It’s so interesting and my favorite genre of movies are Psychological thrillers, so DUH, I was definitely amped to go to the movies. The four of us set off at about 5:30 pm and reached the cinema in time to buy our popcorn and tickets.

Everything pretty much works on a self-service basis and you get your popcorn from this heated glass oven type thing and go over to the pay point and just pay for it. The layout is really cool.

We watched the movie and were at the edge of our seats the entire time. It was THAT GOOD! I mean, come on, M Night Shyamalan is just a genius director. The movie was epic. It was so good that whilst on the bus, busy engaging in conversation about how good the movie was, we missed our stop! Three stops later we realized, whoops, we’re lost. So we got off and waited for another bus to take us back into the city and then catch another bus back home. We ended up getting home pretty late but it was fun and an experience to remember none-the-less.

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend.

I would like to make this blog more structured and I think from now onwards, I am going to try and blog every Sunday, to give you a run down of my interesting week. How does that sound? Good? Good!

I’d like to leave with this thought:

There is a Japanese concept called “Ikigai” (生き甲斐) meaning “a reason for being”. Everyone, according to the Japanese, has an Ikigai. Finding it requires a deep and often lengthy search of self.

I believe once you find your “Ikigai”, your life will be filled with bliss.

Go out there and find your “Ikigai” my little embodiments of light. Go out there and find your reason for being. And live the best possible life that you can!

Love and light to you always,

Sona

*I’m adding the serenity prayer here, for any of you who might need it. This prayer has helped me through some of my darkest days and I’m sure it could help others too! Spread the love, spread the light, spread the peace.*